The utilities and fossil fuel interests that are undermining American solar power

2017 Edition of a report by Frontier Group and Environment America Research & Policy Center

Photo: Calin Tatu via Shutterstock.com

The growth of American solar energy in the past decade is the result of smart, solar-friendly state policies that put clean energy within the financial reach of millions more Americans. But in 2017, many utilities continued to chip away at key state policies that put rooftop solar on the map in the United States, making it harder for more Americans to invest in clean energy.

BLOCKING THE SUN

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This report documents 20 fossil fuel-backed groups and electric utilities running some of the nation’s most aggressive campaigns to slow the growth of solar energy in 12 states, including eight attempts to reduce net metering benefits and seven attempts to create demand charges for customers with solar power.

Photo: Becca Humann

American Legislative Exchange Council

The American Legislative Exchange Council provides utility and fossil fuel interests with access to state legislators, and its anti-net metering policy resolution has inspired legislation in states like Washington and Utah.

Photo: Joe Gough via Shutterstock.com

Edison Electric Institute

The trade group that represents U.S. investor-owned electric utilities launched the current wave of attacks on solar in 2012. Since then, EEI has worked with the American Legislative Exchange Council to create model legislation to repeal state renewable electricity standards and attack net metering.

Photo: Andrea Church via Shutterstock.com

Americans for Prosperity

The Koch brothers have provided funding to the national fight against solar by funneling tens of millions of dollars through a network of opaque nonprofits. This Koch-funded campaign organization has carried out anti-solar organizing efforts.

Photo: Wikimedia.com

The Consumer Energy Alliance

This Houston-based front group for the utility and fossil fuel industry represents companies like Florida Power and Light, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell Oil. CEA has spent resources and shipped representatives across the country to help utilities fight their battles in states like Florida, Indiana, Maine and Utah.

Photo: Ildar Sagdejev via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 4.0

Indiana Energy Association

This state industry group successfully lobbied on behalf of the state’s biggest electric utilities to phase out retail net metering, replacing it instead with a policy that will gradually reduce the rate at which consumers are compensated for generating rooftop power.

Photo: NREL/DOE

Citizens and policymakers must be aware of the tools that utilities are using to undermine solar energy across America, and redouble their commitment to strong policies that move the nation toward a clean energy future.

Photo: Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs

Solar power is clean, affordable and popular with the American people.

In the past decade, solar energy has boomed across the United States. As prices for solar panels fell by 73 percent from 2006 to 2016, the number of U.S. residential rooftop solar installations saw consistent growth, hitting the 1 million mark in 2016. Today, there is enough solar energy in the United States to power one in 14 American homes.

Golden Bag Metallic Havaianas Blush Womens Mini Metallic In 2017, solar generation averted approximately 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution, equivalent to taking nearly 12 million passenger vehicles off the road. It’s no surprise, then, that the vast majority of Americans support solar energy: A 2016 Pew Research Center survey showed that 89 percent of Americans favor increasing the use of solar power.

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Strong public policies have fueled the rise of solar energy.

The rise of American solar energy, which has grown more than 43-fold in capacity since 2007, is no accident. In addition to dramatic price drops—residential solar installations fell in price by 43 percent from 2010 to 2015—forward-looking policies have cut red tape and made solar power more affordable for consumers.

Policies like net metering, renewable electricity standards, third-party ownership, and federal and state tax credits have been particularly important to the growth of solar energy, but electric utilities seeking to undermine solar growth often target these policies. In addition to replacing net metering with lower reimbursement rates for excess solar energy, other common tactics seek to complicate rate design and make solar less of a good investment.

Industry-friendly appointments change the playing field for federal solar policy.

Background: Director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, another Koch-funded group, which has openly lobbied Congress to end a federal program that helps fund net metering programs for those with rooftop solar panels.

Background: Once served as a federal lobbyist for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a trade group that later supported the Florida anti-solar initiative Amendment 1 and has advocated for other anti-solar policies such as monthly fixed fees for rooftop solar customers.

Position: Confirmed for a seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Background: Alumna of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and co-authored the think tank’s book "Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy", which argues against shifting from oil and gas to renewable energy sources.

Position: Nominated to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Since this report was released, the White House withdrew Kathleen Hartnett-White's nomination.

The new positioning of electric utilities to influence policy on a federal level warrants vigilance and strong policies in the states to ensure rooftop solar continues to have a bright future.

Logos: Public Domain

Many utilities and the fossil fuel industry are fighting to stop the growth of solar energy.

To companies that sell coal, oil and natural gas, solar energy represents an obvious long-term threat to the viability of their businesses. To electric utilities that burn these fossil fuels, solar energy installed by individuals and businesses represents a different type of threat, one with much more immediate consequences. Some electric utilities warn that distributed generation is shifting costs from solar customers to average ratepayers; as more individuals and businesses “go solar” and benefit from programs like net metering, they argue, the cost of providing access to the grid will be shared by fewer ratepayers. As the price of energy storage technology declines, more customers will have the ability and the incentive to abandon the grid altogether, triggering a “utility death spiral.”

Despite these claims by utilities, studies show that distributed solar energy actually provides net benefits to society and the electric grid. By reducing waste, pollution and improving efficiency, rooftop solar users deserve to be fairly compensated for the power they produce.

Photo: U.S. Air Force

Solar power has been almost universally embraced by the American public and is delivering benefits to the environment and economy.

Solar energy’s immense popularity isn’t limited to any one segment of the population. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, 89 percent of Americans—including 83 percent of conservative Republicans—favor expanding solar power in the U.S. Widespread popular support for solar energy, combined with a growing understanding of solar energy’s benefits, has limited the success of fossil fuel interests’ anti-solar lobbying campaigns.

State decision-makers should resist utility and fossil fuel industry attempts to reduce the economic viability of distributed solar energy. Policymakers should also uphold our country’s commitment to reduce carbon pollution, and ensure that solar power plays a major role in any strategy to reduce global warming pollution.